Our summer has been filled with lots of firsts! After wrapping up our first successful season committed to our local swim team, we set off for our first family vacation overseas. I hadn’t traveled outside of the country for ten years until this trip, which is the longest spell of domestication I’ve ever had. Won’t do that again if I can help it! Adventuring with my boys has always been my favorite hobby, but doing it around the world is just the most incredible feeling.
Departing July 28th via Iceland Air, our first stop was Reykjavik. To “enhance” the Icelandic experience, my husband spent the second half of July teaching both of the kids the lyrics to the Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin. I’ve provided a link here in case you want to hear what my family sang loudly and repeatedly for the last month.
We finally arrived to our two bedroom flat overlooking the old harbor just after 4am. The view was breathtaking! Props to hubby for finding this gem of a spot for us to crash. FYI, this is what summer nights look like in Iceland. The sunset finally gets about this dark around midnight and remains looking like a beautiful pastel watercolor until about 4:30am when the sun begins to rise again. People are walking in the street, talking, and laughing around the clock. Black out blinds, eye mask, ear plugs.
We were all just so mesmerized by our view.
This is called Þúfa (Pufa) by Ólöf Nordal – a new outdoor art piece in Reykjavík. We really digged this living art that we could see from our window. Lukey called it the green boob and said goodnight and good morning to it daily.
Some of you may have seen my FB posts about terrorizing every location of significance or otherwise across Europe. There you have it. Luckily Pufa wasn’t damaged and we escaped the scene with only a few dirty looks.
This is the view from the harbor looking back on where we stayed. Our window is right behind the red pillar with the clock.
The boys are geared up and ready to set off whale watching!
Finally! Hello, humpback friend!
Headlock, just because.
Just hanging out in the sun at 10pm since we’re all on EST.
A quick peek at Hallgrimskirkja.
On the second day in Iceland, we drove the entire Golden Circle. Lots of gorgeous stops on the way and plenty of tourists to annoy with tantrums!
Thingvallavatn Lake is about 9 miles long, 6 miles wide and reaches a depth of 374 feet! 
Þingvellir National Park was awesome. This is where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are slowing pulling apart, literally where the boys are standing.
My little budding photographers always want a go with the camera. So we let them. 
Our view. Potential future employees? 🙂
Loving this little set up at the restaurant! Need to know where can I get a pair of shades like that?
We went on six boats during the course of our trip, but this was not one of them.
Lukey says that the geysers were his favorite part of the trip. It was a pretty impressive sight! 
Gullfoss waterfall was spectacular. 
This mama was so over the tantrums and shenanigans. 
Amazingly, this teeny tiny rope is all there was between my crazy children and the potential of a violent death in the rocks and water.
Such a beautiful sight!!!
Such a beautiful sight!!!
On our last full day in Iceland we drove a few hours north of Reykjavik to the second largest glacier in Europe. 
We had to ride in two different off-road vehicles to get up mountain.
We booked a tour through the longest man-made ice cave in the world called “Into The Glacier” that was finished only 18 months ago. Now that it’s summer in Iceland, there’s a lot of snow melt which means puddles and dripping inside of the cave. Unsettling if you ask me, but we made it out alive!
I was thinking,” man, it’s SO dark in here.” LOL 
Summer shoveling in Iceland. 
The gorgeous Icelandic ponies and horses are everywhere and seemingly every farmer owns at least a few! Then we found foal on the menu in one restaurant. Things that make you go hmmmmmm.
Petting ponies is fun until you touch the electric fence!
Typical road in the countryside of Iceland.
On our last night in Iceland we visited the famous Blue Lagoon. It’s a geothermal pool created by the power plant next door and one of the most popular tourist destinations. The boys were so mad they had to wear floaties, but they were excited to be out and about at 10PM. Everyone gets to enjoy the local mud mask and the bar in the middle of the pool isn’t so bad either.
Guess which one of us is British? 🙂
Lava fields.
This was the darkest we saw it get in Iceland and that is because of the cloud cover!
Stay tuned for the next blog post with photos from our week in England!
